Kimi K3 (Max) vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Max) by Kimi or Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3 (Max) scores 30.8 points higher (43.6 vs 12.8) but costs 2.8× as much to run the benchmark ($3658 vs $1319; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Kimi K3 (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Max) | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 43.6 | 12.8 | −70.6% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 70.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,658.07 | $1,318.62 | −64.0% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 64.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 50.42s | 16.19s | −67.9% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 67.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.30 / $0.90 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) vs Kimi K3 (Max): 70.6% less intelligence, 64.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 67.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Kimi K3 (Max)Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3/nvidia-nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3/nvidia-nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill